elon musk is the result of an accidental (?) form of memetic selection. criticize everyone for doing anything and you create a world in which the only people who do anything are the ones immune to criticism. and tbc, this is not good; immunity to criticism makes cult leaders
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wonder if it’s some kind of high modernist thing to believe that only the first-order effects of an intervention matter, and refuse to think ecologically
“oh, thing bad, better criticize it. this will definitely cause there to be less of thing. yep. that always works”
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related to why i feel pessimistic about “command” and “shame” as theories of change. “frequently backfires”
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2. “shame” - shame people for doing the wrong thing and they’ll do the right thing. sort of a variant of command. i’m pessimistic. i think shame has mostly broken as a mechanism for changing people’s behavior, and frequently backfires. i try not to use it myself
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Sounds kinda similar to this quote from Peter Thiel: medium.com/conversations-
Though his conclusion might be that it's conformity, not criticism that drives this
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yeah def feels related. i think criticism is a big part of what drives conformity so i think the two synergize as explanations a lot
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true, but don't think this is only due to culture
musk seems to be open to technical criticism, ie how he could best achieve his goals, but not criticism of the goals themselves
how could this ever not be selected for in the most successful people?
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fully agree though on the risks of this
the very traits that select for people like him at the top also make them high risk people to be in those positions
very high leverage through the goals of very few people
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What makes you think Musk is immune to criticism? I find it hard to believe that someone could be that successful if they are unwilling to hear or learn from criticism.